Endeavour makes its final rounds: A photoessay

On the ground at Ellington Field in Houston, Ars gets some close-ups.

The space shuttle Endeavour touched down at Ellington Field outside of Houston on Wednesday, and the masses flocked to see the orbiter that's been part of NASA's fleet since its first flight in 1992. From Houston, Endeavour will ride on top of the specialized Boeing 747 that's carrying it to Los Angeles, where it will be officially retired.

Ars got an up-close look at the space shuttle making its final rounds.

Enlarge/ A fuller view of Endeavour and SCA #1. Partially obscured at left are the SCA's twin tails, necessary because of the turbulence created by the shuttle while airborne.

Photo by Lee Hutchinson

Enlarge/ Close view of Endeavour's forward section and flight deck. At full magnification, the caution decals are readable. Each black TPS tile is individually numbered; the numbers are visible but illegible at this distance.

Enlarge/ Decal details on SCA #1, showing the different payloads ferried by the aircraft. At full resolution, the decals are legible.

Photo by Lee Hutchinson

Enlarge/ Endeavour and SCA #1 illuminated in the warm Texas evening. Sorry about the light pole, but the event was packed and I was shoulder-to-shoulder with people fighting for a position to shoot from!

44 Reader Comments

It's always sad when something scientific that was used for the betterment of the human species and increase our understanding of the universe we live in is retired. Is there a replacement? I haven't really followed this development.

I was able to see the shuttle at Udvar-Hazy a month or so ago when I was up in the DC area. Truly impressive and awesome to stand in the presence of something so important and iconic. I was surprised by the emotional impact it had on me. If you get the chance, go see one. It's an amazing part of the history of the human race.

Probably worth giving a shout-out to my camera. I don't have a fancy DSLR--all these pics were taken using a Canon Powershot S100 point-and-shoot. I didn't even have a tripod--just balanced the camera on the crowd-control barriers for most of the pics. Did most of the shooting in Av mode with the aperture as wide as I could get it and with the ISO at 100 (though I turned on auto ISO for several shots, too). It's a great little camera.

Probably worth giving a shout-out to my camera. I don't have a fancy DSLR--all these pics were taken using a Canon Powershot S100 point-and-shoot. I didn't even have a tripod--just balanced the camera on the crowd-control barriers for most of the pics. Did most of the shooting in Av mode with the aperture as wide as I could get it and with the ISO at 100 (though I turned on auto ISO for several shots, too). It's a great little camera.

Probably worth giving a shout-out to my camera. I don't have a fancy DSLR--all these pics were taken using a Canon Powershot S100 point-and-shoot. I didn't even have a tripod--just balanced the camera on the crowd-control barriers for most of the pics. Did most of the shooting in Av mode with the aperture as wide as I could get it and with the ISO at 100 (though I turned on auto ISO for several shots, too). It's a great little camera.

As a manned-space-exploration advocate, I have mixed feelings on the shuttles. The concept was great, the execution was horrible. They never lived up to the predicted turn-around times, were grounded on multiple occasions, and cost much more per launch than advertized. The net result was that they ate up the lion's share of the manned-exploration budget for over 30 years, and we havn't managed to get a human out of Low Earth Orbit since the end of Appolo.

Houston deserved to get a shuttle. I cant believe it was snubbed in favor of NYC. What does the Intrepid museum have to do with space? Houston has had such an integral part of NASA and NYC is chosen over it as one of the shuttles final locations? Such a terrible decision...

Houston deserved to get a shuttle. I cant believe it was snubbed in favor of NYC. What does the Intrepid museum have to do with space? Houston has had such an integral part of NASA and NYC is chosen over it as one of the shuttles final locations? Such a terrible decision...

Agreed, especially when NYers are just a day trip from the Smithsonian anyway. Locating half of the remaining shuttles within a couple hundred miles of each other was disrespectful to the rest of the country, and especially Houston.

I'm irritated about Houston not getting a shuttle, and positively sad I didn't get to make it down there to see this My dad emailed me some good photos people in his office took while it went over but it isn't the same. I'm actually more emotional about the shuttle program closing down (even though I largely understand WHY) than I thought I'd be.

I was about to ask a question, but here's the answer -- all shuttles and resting sites (pulled from techCrunch -i think Ars had a similar summary, but can't seem to find it)

Quote:

Space Shuttle Discovery

Somber fact about the Discovery: After her final space mission this past March, she became the only original Shuttle to survive her final launch and landing unlike the Challenger and Columbia. She’s going to end up at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to replace the Enterprise prototype.

Space Shuttle Atlantis

The Atlantis first took off from Kennedy Space Center in April of 1985 and flew for the last time on May 14, 2010. She logged 120 million miles over 32 missions. Her final destination will be in Florida at the Kennedy Space Center after NASA removes all the dangerous fluids and equipment.

Space Shuttle Endeavour

Save a disaster, the youngest Space Shuttle Endeavour is on her way to the California Science Center in Los Angeles after flying her Space Shuttle mission later this month.

Enterprise prototype

The Enterprise is to be moved from its current home at the Smithsonian to the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum located on Manhattan’s West Side. While it never actually reached outer space, the Enterprise conducted upper atmosphere test flights and actually flew over New York City in 1983. Likewise, NYC itself never had a major historical claim to the Shuttle like several other vying locations, but the 1943 warship museum does pull in close to a million visitors a year and helped recovery early NASA launch vehicles.

I got to see the original space shuttle fly over our high school back in the early 80's. It was sad to see the last one fly over yesterday. And yea it was a slap in the face that it was not staying in Houston.

I can completely understand the Smithsonian and the Kennedy Space Center getting a space shuttle but Los Angeles and New York should not have gotten one over Houston. I have friends at the Johnson Space Center who are engineers who worked on the shuttle program and astronauts who flew on them. To deny Houston getting a shuttle was a purely political move because Houston is a primarily Republican City.

I concur on the frustration that Houston didn't get one of these wonderful old birds. Native Californian here but I've been to Houston and seen the collection of NASA craft there and a shuttle really ought to be there. It's a glaring mistake. Hopefully, someday one of them will make their way there.

And the pic of the mission decals is cool. I looked up the Phantom Ray as that one stood out. Looks like one of the UAV's Boeing has developed. I see the need for those, but it's kind of a sadder, darker transition for this jet after a lifelong service to the shuttle program. Sigh. NASA's got to pay the bills somehow I suppose.

Probably worth giving a shout-out to my camera. I don't have a fancy DSLR--all these pics were taken using a Canon Powershot S100 point-and-shoot. I didn't even have a tripod--just balanced the camera on the crowd-control barriers for most of the pics. Did most of the shooting in Av mode with the aperture as wide as I could get it and with the ISO at 100 (though I turned on auto ISO for several shots, too). It's a great little camera.

Nice. I got this camera earlier this clear. It was great at a convention to be able to make the adjustments so that my pictures turned out (of people on stage in various light conditions) and not have to carry a bulky DSLR.

I was at Kennedy this last weekend and had the distinct pleasure to see Endeavor and the carrier in the Mate-DeMate fixture. An awe-inspiring sight, definitely made me reminisce about the last launch I had witnessed. Brings back a lot of emotion.

The true tragedy is all the money the government mismanaged over the years on a laundry list of aborted programs would have afforded us a viable replacement by now, if we had just stuck to a plan. Well, at least the Air Force has their X-37B.

It's also sad that it seems the carrier aircraft will not be similarly preserved. Last I heard they were going to use it as a source for SOFIA spare parts.

I'm going to go ahead and disagree with the position that Houston should have a shuttle.

Houston already has a shitload of great pieces from throughout the history of space technology, and putting such distinctive items in other places will make them (and the ideas they represent) more accessible to more people. The whole point of putting them on display is to get people interested in space.

The problem with Houston, as I understand it, was that their space center's proposal for hosting a shuttle basically took the same approach as many of the comments here: "Well, of course we obviously deserve to get a shuttle." The were overconfident and put in a disorganized, unimpressive proposal which didn't make a sufficiently solid case for what they would do with it and how they would attract enough visitors, etc. It's too bad that was the case.

But in some sense, it's actually kind of ironically fitting: even though Mission Control is at JSC, the shuttles didn't spend any time physically there ever as part of their missions. Built in Los Angeles, launched from Kennedy, landed in Florida and California. So L.A. does make sense, and I'm glad they're getting one. Besides which, from a purely practical standpoint in terms of getting people to see this up close, Los Angeles is way more of a tourist town than Houston is.

What I really want is SpaceX to donate their first flight Dragon capsule to the California Science Center so you can have that sitting right next to Endeavor. :-)

Cool photos, but I have a question. Is it our tax dollars at work paying for these flights to move these shuttles around?

Yes, but there are far less noble expenditures of government money to get upset about. Transporting pieces of history to their resting places in order to be displayed for the enrichment and education of the public is not exactly the most outrageous use of tax dollars.

I took a trip to Florida to try and see the last launch of Endeavour. Unfortunately it was delayed for several weeks and I didn't get to. Got some nice photos of it on the pad though. This is one of those things I wish I could have seen in person, but in-Lou of that, these pictures are great. Thank you!

I took a trip to Florida to try and see the last launch of Endeavour. Unfortunately it was delayed for several weeks and I didn't get to. Got some nice photos of it on the pad though. This is one of those things I wish I could have seen in person, but in-Lou of that, these pictures are great. Thank you!

I feel your pain. It took me 4 trips to Florida, 6 scrubs, and three overnight sessions (2 on the causeway)before I actually saw a launch. It was worth the wait.

Many people don't realize that the remaining shuttle orbiters have had their engines removed, which effectively destroys them as accurate historical artifacts. Because they were reusable, the RS-25 Space Shuttle Main Engines were arguably the most important technology developed for the Space Shuttle program.

All shuttle engines were removed so that they could end up in the bottom of the ocean -- to be re-used (one time only) by NASA as part of the future Space Launch System (SLS). What a waste!

Imagine if the original engines had been removed and destroyed from the Wright Flyer, from the B-29 Enola Gay bomber, or from other aircraft exhibited at the Smithsonian. Yet nobody seems to care about this destruction of the 3 remaining Space Shuttle orbiters. Sad...

Lee Hutchinson / Lee is the Senior Reviews Editor at Ars and is responsible for the product news and reviews section. He also knows stuff about enterprise storage, security, and manned space flight. Lee is based in Houston, TX.